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Zimbabwe opposition, gov't talk in South Africa
Washington Times
DONNA
BRYSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
Originally published 03:04 p.m., July 10, 2008,
updated 02:57 p.m., July 10,
2008
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (AP) -
Zimbabwean government and opposition
officials met in South Africa on
Thursday to try to find a way out of their
country's crisis, with the
opposition pressing for an end to attacks on its
supporters.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he sent a team
to Pretoria, the
capital, led by his top deputy Tendai Biti to lay down
conditions for talks,
not to open negotiations.
Chief among the
conditions is an end to violence blamed on Zimbabwean
President Robert
Mugabe's supporters.
"At present the state-sanctioned violence and
repressive legislation
employed by the regime is designed to silence the
Zimbabwean people,"
Tsvangirai said in a statement.
His Movement for
Democratic Change is "committed to finding a peaceful,
negotiated solution
to the Zimbabwean crisis and we will take every
opportunity to clarify our
position and to allow the voice of the Zimbabwean
people to be heard," he
said.
The opposition says more than 90 of its supporters have been killed
since
Tsvangirai won a first round of presidential elections in March. He
did not
win the 50 percent plus one vote necessary to avoid a runoff against
second-place finisher Mugabe.
Zimbabwe's crisis has deepened since
Mugabe claimed victory in a widely
denounced June 27 presidential runoff in
which he was the only candidate.
Tsvangirai pulled out days before the race
because of the violence.
Opposition conditions for holding talks also
include a mediator to be
appointed alongside South African President Thabo
Mbeki, whose had overseen
talks on and off for more than a year. The
opposition says Mbeki is biased
in Mugabe's favor.
Tsvangirai also
calls for the release of political prisoners, allowing
humanitarian
organizations to resume work in Zimbabwe and convening
parliament.
Tsvangirai's supporters won control of parliament in legislative
elections
held alongside the presidential vote.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf lent her support Thursday to the
opposition's stand on
mediation.
Sirleaf said Mbeki's efforts on behalf of the main regional
group, the
Southern African Development Community, should continue, but "we
hope they
will welcome another outside mediator to work with them." She said
such a
mediator should be "high profile."
Sirleaf, among the most
respected of a new generation of leaders in Africa,
spoke Thursday at a news
conference in Johannesburg. Sirleaf will deliver
later this week the annual
lecture marking former President Nelson Mandela's
birthday.
She also
said Zimbabwe's June 27 run-off was not free and fair. Other
African
leaders, including Mbeki, have not been so blunt.
Zimbabwe's opposition
has been denying reports that talks were set to resume
_ even after a court
hearing Wednesday at which Biti's lawyer told a judge
Biti needed to have
his passport returned so he could go to South Africa for
the
talks.
The judge ordered the return of the passport, which Biti had been
forced to
surrender when he was arrested during Zimbabwe's recent runoff
election
campaign and charged with treason.
Recently, Mugabe's party
has shown increasing eagerness to start talks,
apparently in the hope of
persuading U.N. Security Council members to reject
a U.S.-drafted resolution
to impose sanctions on Mugabe and some of his top
political and security
officials.
The council is expected to vote on the resolution this
week.
Both sides say they are willing to form a coalition government, but
they
differ on who should lead it.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF wants Mugabe at
the head, something the opposition and
Mugabe's critics in the West have
rejected. Tsvangirai bases his claim to
leadership the results of the first
round of presidential voting.
Zimbabwean government spokesman Bright
Matonga made clear Thursday its
position on Mugabe had not changed, saying:
"President Mugabe is the
president of Zimbabwe for the next five
years."
On Thursday, a South African policy group said Zimbabwe's
opposition was
increasingly striking back at ZANU-PF with violence, creating
a "recipe for
civil war." The study was based on analysis of documents,
interviews with
government officials across Africa, research in Zimbabwe and
other sources.
Peter Kagwanja, who wrote the Human Sciences Research
Council report called
"Saving Zimbabwe", said opposition attacks have gone
from spontaneous to
organized. Kagwanja called for intervention from the
African Union and
Mbeki's mediation team.
Opposition spokesman Nelson
Chamisa, speaking by telephone from Harare,
Zimbabwe, said the group's
members have never been violent.
"We have been victims. And even under
very extreme circumstances, we have
continued to resist the temptation of
fighting fire with fire," Chamisa
said.
___
Associated Press
reporters Sabrina Shankman and Devon Haynie in Johannesburg
contributed to
this report.
Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF meet for talks with MDC
opposition
The Telegraph
By Peta Thornycroft in Harare and Sebastien Berger
Last
Updated: 7:06PM BST 10/07/2008
Negotiators from Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party
and the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change have met in South Africa
for their first talks since
Zimbabwe's one-candidate presidential "election"
last month.
The meeting, a continuation of the process mediated by the South
African
president Thabo Mbeki, came despite the MDC repeatedly insisting
that the
doors to talks had been closed by the vote, which Mr Mugabe claims
gave him
a legitimate mandate.
It came ahead of a United Nations
Security Council meeting last night which
could decide on proposed sanctions
against Zanu-PF members, described by
Prime Minister Gordon Brown as a
"criminal cabal".
Despite the talks, the gulf between Zanu-PF and the MDC
is apparent in the
fact that dozens of MDC Members of Parliament fear they
are still targets
for Mugabe thugs.
The Zimbabwean parliament, in
which the MDC won a small majority in March,
is due to assemble next week
but he said that was impossible in the current
climate of fear.
"Most of
our MPs are in hiding," he said. "Several are in detention or in
hospital
recovering from wounds, and a number fled into exile, so until that
situation is normal, how can we proceed? That is what these talks will be
about." The party's information director Luke Tamborinyika, who has himself
regularly been arrested, could not say how many MPs were missing.
"We
think three are in prison and one is in the intensive care unit in a
clinic
in Harare, but there may be more. We don't know how many are hiding
out in
Botswana or South Africa." Tendai Biti, the MDC's chief negotiator,
was
expected to press for the mediation team to be extended to include the
African Union chairman Jean Ping.
Other names bandied about by the
MDC include the former UN secretary general
Kofi Annan, who would not be
acceptable to Mr Mugabe, and the South African
tycoon and former trade union
leader Cyril Ramaphosa, the key player for in
negotiations which led to
democratic elections in 1994.
Mr Mugabe has regularly labelled Mr
Ramaphosa a 'western sell-out' or, even
worse in his lexicon of insults, a
'black white' man.
The MDC has said it has lost confidence in Mr Mbeki as
a mediator, and while
international observers have universally condemned the
campaign of violence
waged against the opposition, South Africa's state
Human Sciences Research
Council said retaliatory violence by the MDC was
creating "a low-intensity
civil war" in Zimbabwe.
The report
repeatedly quoted Augustine Chihuri, the Zimbabwe police
commissioner, a key
member of the Joint Operating Command and one of Mr
Mugabe's closest allies,
and regurgitated other items of Zanu-PF propaganda
from the state
newspapers.
It called for international sanctions to be applied to the
MDC as well as
Zanu-PF.
If it were put out by almost any other body
it could be dismissed as the
product of sympathisers of Mr Mugabe, but the
fact that it was issued by an
agency of Mr Mbeki's government is evidence
for those who accuse him of
bias.
Zimbabwe opposition denies negotiations started
Reuters
Thu 10 Jul
2008, 16:47 GMT
By Nelson Banya
HARARE, July 10 (Reuters) -
Zimbabwe's ruling party and the opposition MDC
held their first talks on
Thursday since the widely condemned re-election of
President Robert Mugabe
last month, but the MDC denied substantive
negotiations had
started.
Both sides have been under heavy African and world pressure to
enter
negotiations since Mugabe's re-election in a June 27 poll boycotted by
the
opposition because of campaign violence.
Movement for Democratic
Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai said senior
officials were attending talks
in Pretoria but said they were merely
presenting conditions under which
negotiations could take place, including
an end to violence against the
opposition.
"We have stated that no such negotiations can take place
while the (ruling)
ZANU-PF regime continues to wage war on my party and the
people of Zimbabwe.
This position has not changed," he said in a
statement.
The MDC says more than 100 of its supporters were killed
during the campaign
by militias loyal to Mugabe, 84, and that the violence
has continued since
the vote.
Tsvangirai said negotiations could not
begin until a series of conditions
were met including the end of violence,
release of 1,500 imprisoned MDC
supporters, the resumption of aid by
humanitarian organisations and the
appointment of a permanent envoy from the
African Union.
Diplomatic sources said a breakaway faction of the MDC,
led by Arthur
Mutambara, was also taking part in the Pretoria talks mediated
by South
Africa.
Western nations led by former colonial ruler Britain
and the United States,
who have condemned Mugabe's re-election as
illegitimate, are pushing the
U.N. Security Council today or tomorrow to
impose sanctions on Mugabe's
inner circle, as well as an arms embargo on
Zimbabwe.
South Africa, backed in the past by veto wielding council
members Russia and
China, opposes sanctions.
Zimbabwe's High Court on
Wednesday relaxed bail conditions on MDC
Secretary-General Tendai Biti and
gave him back his passport, responding to
a petition by his lawyers who said
he should be allowed to travel for talks
in South Africa.
Biti, who
faces charges of treason, was leading the MDC delegation at the
Pretoria
talks, Tsvangirai said. The composition of the ZANU-PF team was not
immediately known.
CRISIS
The June 27 election and its
condemned outcome have worsened the crisis in
Zimbabwe, whose economy has
collapsed, sending millions of refugees into
neighbouring states including
South Africa and increasing pressure for a
solution.
The once
prosperous nation is crippled by the world's worst inflation rate,
estimated
to be at least 2 million percent.
Mugabe has been in power since
independence from Britain in 1980.
The African Union, at a summit last
month, called for talks leading to a
national unity government.
Many
AU members oppose sanctions but Liberian President Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf on
Thursday came out in favour, telling reporters in
Johannesburg that the move
was intended to send a message to African leaders
that they should do
something about Zimbabwe.
"Sanctions don't always work, as you know. But
I think the fact that it does
send a strong message about the disagreement
against those things that are
really causing a country and its people to
suffer makes it appropriate for
those actions."
Anglophone West
African countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia and the
continent's most
populous nation, Nigeria, have been among Mugabe's
strongest critics,
together with his neighbours in Botswana and Zambia.
Tsvangirai defeated
Mugabe in a March 29 first round presidential poll but
fell short of the
absolute majority required to avoid a run-off.
Mugabe blames the
opposition for the bloodshed.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has
mediated unsuccessfully in the
Zimbabwean crisis for more than a year,
drawing increasing criticism. The
MDC says he favours Mugabe and has called
for expanded mediation from the AU
and the United
Nations.
Johnson-Sirleaf also called for another mediator and suggested a
high-profile figure.
Some African leaders support a power-sharing
solution in Zimbabwe like the
one mediated by former U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan to end Kenya's
bloody post-election crisis this year. (Additional
reporting by Paul Simao
in Pretoria, Gordon Bell and Muchena Zigomo in
Johannesburg; Writing by
Barry Moody, Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Zimbabwe Opponents Begin Talking About Talks
New York Times
By
BARRY BEARAK
Published: July 11, 2008
JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe's ruling
party began preliminary discussions with
the opposition on Thursday in an
effort to settle a political crisis in
which both sides stake a claim to the
nation's presidency.
But in a statement late in the day Morgan
Tsvangirai, the opposition leader,
stressed that these talks, in Pretoria,
South Africa, cannot lead to genuine
negotiations until state-sponsored
violence stops and 1,500 of his
supporters are released from prison.
He
denounced efforts by the government of President Robert Mugabe to portray
Thursday's meeting as a negotiation imminently leading to a settlement,
saying the ruling party, ZANU-PF, is "being disingenuous and exploiting the
plight of the Zimbabwean people for political gain."
Mr. Tsvangirai
was in an awkward position. For the past two days, his party,
the Movement
for Democratic Change, has issued categorical statements that
it will not
participate in any kind of talks until its conditions were met.
The
government's announcement that talks were in the works was a "figment of
the
dictator's imagination," read one opposition statement.
But Thursday, Mr.
Tsvangirai nevertheless sent emissaries to Pretoria.
Both sides have
mentioned the need for some sort of unity government, though
ZANU-PF demands
that President Mugabe remain on top while the opposition
insists on Mr.
Tsvangirai.
Mr. Tsvangirai outpolled Mr. Mugabe in a March election but
then pulled out
of a June 27 runoff, citing the ongoing
violence.
Thursday's meetings may indeed prove to be nothing more than
finger-pointing. But the fact that any discussions are occurring at all is
something of a victory for the regional mediator, South Africa's president,
Thabo Mbeki, who is a Mugabe ally of long standing and whom the opposition
has accused of bias in the mediation. Mr. Mbeki traveled to Harare last
weekend but failed to get Mr. Tsvangirai to meet with Mr.
Mugabe.
Neither Mr. Mugabe nor Mr. Tsvangirai has come to Pretoria. The
opposition
is represented by its secretary general, Tendai Biti, who was
only recently
freed on bail on treason charges, and deputy treasurer-general
Elton
Mangoma. The ZANU-PF negotiators are Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa and
Labor Minister Nicholas Goche, according to Zimbabwe's
state-run newspaper
The Herald.
By most accounts, the bloodletting
continues in Zimbabwe. In the pre-dawn
hours on Monday, hundreds of people
displaced by earlier violence were
attacked at a rehabilitation center near
Harare. Victims blamed the assault
on ZANU-PF militia.
"Where do I go
now?" asked an opposition activist contacted by phone. He was
afraid to have
his name appear in the newspaper. "Someone who escaped with
me was killed. I
don't know what to do or where to go. This city is too
small for me now and
there is no protection."
Weeks ago, charitable organizations were ordered
by the Mugabe government to
stop helping the country's poor and the hungry.
Church groups and other
volunteers are hastily attempting to step into the
breach. The number of
displaced people is estimated in the tens of
thousands.
"We're feeding a thousand people, men, women and children, and
that's just a
small part of the displaced," said a volunteer in Harare who
was also afraid
to have her name published. "People - white and black - have
been very
generous with what little they have: money, tooth brushes, oil,
soap,
whatever. We can feed people but we can't help them if the government
is
going to root them out and attack them."
Talks Shrouded in Secrecy - Again
SW Radio Africa
(London)
10 July 2008
Posted to the web 10 July
2008
Negotiators for the main political parties in Zimbabwe met in
Pretoria for
pre-dialogue consultations on Thursday, but as usual the
development is
shrouded in secrecy.
There was confirmation by the
spokesperson for the South African Presidency,
Mukoni Ratshitanga, saying
the political stakeholders had met but no further
details were
provided.
However, the Tsvangirai MDC, which had boycotted a meeting
with Robert
Mugabe last week, said Thursday's meeting is just to lay their
conditions
for participating in more substantive dialogue with ZANU PF. MDC
President
Morgan Tsvangirai insists these are preparatory talks, to discuss
the
conditions for negotiations which must include an end to violence and
the
release of political detainees.
In a statement issued late
Thursday Tsvangirai said; "Over the past ten
days, I and my party have
stated categorically that there are no
negotiations between ourselves and
ZANU PF currently taking place. In
addition, we have stated that no such
negotiations can take place while the
ZANU PF regime continues to wage war
on my party and the people of Zimbabwe.
This position has not
changed."
The MDC leader, who won the first round of elections on 29
March said:
"Those persons portraying this meeting as the beginning of
negotiations
between the MDC and ZANU PF are being disingenuous and
exploiting the plight
of the Zimbabwean people for political
gain."
He added: "In addition, portraying these talks as negotiations
also
undermines the resolution of the African Union, the statements made by
the
G8 leaders and the current process underway at the United Nations
Security
Council, all of which are designed to pressure the ZANU PF regime
to desist
from its campaign of violence against the MDC and the people of
Zimbabwe."
Commenting on the Pretoria meeting, South African based
Zimbabwean
journalist Basildon Peta said: "These are talks about talks as
they put it
and there hasn't been anything officially released by both
parties and by
the South African government. It seems the talks are shrouded
in secrecy."
Peta said history is repeating itself as there was a media
blackout in the
pre-election dialogue mediated by President Thabo Mbeki that
started in
March last year. He said: "I am not sure whether it will work in
the
interest of the MDC to continue being subjected to that Mbeki
machination,
of doing things behind closed doors. I hope they would have
learnt a lesson
from the collapse of the previous dialogue that was aimed at
creating
conditions for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe."
The
journalist said this is a matter that is in the public interest and
Zimbabweans deserve to know how their future is being
planned.
Observers say the meeting of the Zimbabwean politicians could
see the United
Nations Security Council delaying a move on Zimbabwe, as
countries like
Russia favour a push for negotiations rather that punitive
measures,
something that is strongly supported by South African President
Thabo Mbeki.
South Africa's ANC leaders meet Mugabe
Afrique en ligne
Top
leaders of South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party
Thursday held talks with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, but the two
sides were mum on whether they discussed the political log-jam in the
country.
PANA reports the South African delegation, which included
the ANC' vice
president Kgalema Montlanthe and secretary general Gwede
Mentashe, met
Mugabe and his two deputies and other senior ruling party
leaders here.
Montlanthe said the visit was principally to introduce
Mentashe to
Zimbabwe's ruling party leaders and also to explore the
possibility of
holding a meeting of all former guerrilla movements in the
region.
"We also discussed ways of developing programmes to enhance
liberation war
movements," he said.
Observers said the South African
team might have come to see first-hand, the
political crisis in Zimbabwe,
which has been deepened by disputed
presidential elections in March and
June.
The ANC, among several other political parties and countries in the
region,
have criticised Mugabe's re-election last month in a poll boycotted
by the
opposition over alleged pre-election violence.
South African
President Thabo Mbeki is mediating in the stand-off between
Mugabe and the
opposition over the election results.
He is trying to get the two sides
to agree to a power-sharing deal similar
to the one Kenya adopted after a
violent post-election crisis early this
year.
Harare -
10/07/2008
Pana
Junta, not Mugabe, in charge
Mail and Guardian
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Jul 10 2008 13:46
The
military, not President Robert Mugabe, is in charge of Zimbabwe, the
Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum said on Thursday.
Spokesperson Sipho Theys
said a military junta had taken over Zimbabwe with
militia controlling parts
of the country.
"A militia junta rules Zimbabwe. Rural bases of soldiers
are living off
rural communities and humanitarian aid," Theys told a media
briefing in
Johannesburg.
He said Mugabe was no longer the problem as
he had lost charge.
Meanwhile, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition spokesperson
McDonald Lewanika said
informal curfews had been put in place in
Zimbabwe.
Lewanika, who arrived from Harare on Thursday, said the
humanitarian crisis
in that country had escalated.
"It feels like the
election period," said Lewanika, adding that police
officers were warning
Zimbabweans to be indoors by 7pm.
The Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum is a
network movement of SA civil society
organisations which include youth,
women, labour and faith-based groups.
EU calls for sanctions
European
Union lawmakers called on Thursday for tougher EU sanctions against
Zimbabwe, including putting businessmen who finance Mugabe's regime on a
visa ban list.
CONTINUES BELOW
In a resolution,
the deputies urged the EU "to tighten and extend targeted
sanctions against
members of the Mugabe regime and others responsible for
grave violations of
human rights, if mediation efforts are not accepted and
the state-sponsored
violence is not ended".
It came as diplomats said that the United Nations
Security Council would
probably vote later on Thursday on targeted UN
sanctions against Mugabe and
13 of his associates over a presidential
election widely viewed as
illegitimate.
The deputies called on the EU
"to press for sanctions to be adopted at UN
level, including an arms embargo
and a comprehensive freeze of assets of the
entire government and ruling
party leadership".
In addition, the resolution urged the bloc to take
"coercive measures" which
would "name and shame those business people
responsible for financing the
repressive Zanu-PF regime".
The
measures would include "rescinding their rights of residence in Europe,
and
denying their family members access to employment and educational
institutions".
Shareholders in "international banks which act as
conduits for corrupt
earnings, or provide loans and investment such as
Barclays Bank, Standard
Chartered and others", should also be
warned.
International pressure has mounted on Mugabe -- Zimbabwe's leader
since
independence -- since opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew
from last
month's presidential election amid spiralling campaign
violence.
The EU has previously slapped extensive sanctions on Zimbabwe,
including an
arms embargo and travel ban on Mugabe and other senior
officials. They were
imposed after he won elections in 2002 which the
opposition insists were
rigged.
In June last year, the bloc widened
the travel ban and imposed an assets
freeze on Zimbabweans deemed
responsible for the "rapidly deteriorating
human rights, political and
economic situation".
"The situation in Zimbabwe has really reached a
nadir. The people are being
held hostage by a regime determined to cling
onto power," German
conservative lawmaker Michael Gahler said during debate.
- Sapa, AFP
Dear General C.
Chiwenga
By Phil
Matibe | Harare Tribune
News
Updated: July 10,
2008 10:58
opinion@hararetribune.com
|
The head of Zimbabwe Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) Happyton
Bonyongwe (L) with Constantine Chiwenga, the commander of the Zimbabwean Army
(C) are pictured wuth President Robert Mugabe at Harare Airport, on July 03,
2008.
Photo:
Harare
Tribune | | |
General C. Chiwenga, CDF
Commander, Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF),
C/O
The Defence Attaché
Lt. Col. George Chinoingira
Embassy of
Zimbabwe
1608 New Hampshire Ave
Washington DC 20009.
10 July 2008.
chinoingira@zimbabwe-embassy.us
RE: Use of Agro Chemicals as Bio-Chemical Warfare Agents in Zimbabwe.
General Chiwenga,
Zimbabweans steadfastly demand that you order the cantonment of all ZDF
personnel currently deployed in the rural and urban areas and an immediate
cessation of all universally prohibited bio-chemical attacks on Zimbabwean
citizens. Furthermore, the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war by your
military auxiliaries and militias on women political activists in your numerous
re-education torture camps must end forthwith. This sadistic premeditated use of
sexual violence against women and girls is inhuman and defies our strong African
cultural values.
Unashamed partisan members of the ZDF under your direct command and control
are engaged in illegal, horrific and repugnant acts of bio-terrorism against
unarmed defenceless civilians in Zimbabwe. These unprovoked attacks carried out
by your officers and men as part of a pre-planned opposition voter annihilation
exercise, are prohibited under international law and lack human decency.
General Chiwenga your propensity for wicked acts of brutality is infamous.
However, you have outdone yourself with this latest spate of despicable criminal
acts of viciousness, which are not only cowardly but also repulsive and totally
unforgivable.
Traumatised women, who are gang raped, children and the elderly subjected to
torture and horrendous beatings, have their ghastly open wounds sprayed with
toxic pesticides and herbicides. The Joint Operations Command (JOC) of which you
chair supplies these agricultural chemicals, logistical support, the victims
list and is responsible for drafting the operational plans in defence of a
despotic junta.
Why on God's earth do you do this?
Zimbabwe is a member of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons (OPCW) and a signatory to the Convention on the Prohibition of the
Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and the Geneva
Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or
Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare.
Article I, GENERAL OBLIGATIONS of the Convention: 1. Section (B) states that,
each State Party to this Convention undertakes never under any circumstances:
(b): To use chemical weapons.
The Convention thus reinforces a basic
principle of law relating to the conduct of hostilities whereby the right of the
parties to an armed conflict to choose methods or means of warfare is not
unlimited. Punishment of the crime of developing, producing, acquiring,
stockpiling, retaining, transferring or using biological or chemical weapons is
based upon the precedents set by other international treaties on crimes such as
torture, piracy, slavery and hijacking.
The 1925 Geneva Protocol forbids the use of chemical and bacteriological
agents in war. General Chiwenga, you are in gross violation of all known rules
of war and the laws of armed conflict. You flagrantly employ brutal military
tactics against unarmed peaceful civilians, which are prehistoric, barbaric,
banned by universal law and have no place in modern civilised society.
You and your subordinates are now wanted war criminals to be punished for
crimes of war under the International Criminal Court and other international
statutes that cover the use of poison weapons, crimes of war and crimes against
humanity. Under Zimbabwean law, you are subject to a military court marshal for
these and other acts of blatant cruelty for which the penalty under the Defence
Act is death by firing squad.
The ZDF and ZANU(PF) youth militia under your unlawful military command is
using Paraquat (1,1'-dimethyl-4,4'-bipyridinium), trade name Gramoxone, a lethal
herbicide and Dimethoate (Dimethoxyphosphinothioylthio–N-methylacetamide) trade
name Rogor, a noxious pesticide, in its low intensity conflict against the
innocent rural citizens of Zimbabwe who voted against Robert Mugabe.
The long-term effects on the victims of your chemical warfare include
respiratory ailments, liver malfunction, involuntary defecation, psychosis,
rapid heart rate, kidney failure, lung sores, and liver injury, coma and cardiac
arrest.
International arrest warrants will soon be issued. Prepare to answer for your
scorched earth policies and heinous acts alone in a court of law.
Sincerely,
Phil Matibe
Anti-Tyranny Taskforce
Commander |
'Zim closest to civil war yet'
iafrica.com
Article By:
Thu, 10 Jul
2008 13:54
Some frustrated Movement for Democratic Change supporters in
Zimbabwe have
decided to arm themselves and engage in retaliatory violence
against rival
Zanu-PF, the Human Sciences Research Council said on
Thursday.
"We do know almost certainly that some of them have begun
training," said
Kwandiwe Kondlo, executive director of the HSRC's democracy
and governance
research programme, in Johannesburg.
The programme
released the report on Thursday called "Saving Zimbabwe",
saying that
elections were becoming a major source of conflict in Africa.
They said
Zimbabwe had never been as close to civil war as it was now, after
the
controversial one-man election run-off on 27 June.
MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai pulled out of the election run-off against
president Robert
Mugabe at the last minute, citing fears of violence against
the party's
supporters.
"This is not an official policy from MDC, but it simply hell
going loose."
Kondlo said research indicated the emergence of "democratic
resistance
committees" who had acquired some form of training.
"I
don't want to be quoted as saying the MDC is preparing for war... The MDC
is
feeling very insecure."
The HSRC recommends the establishment of an
African electoral commission,
expanded mediation efforts, and possible
sanctions against the MDC and
Zanu-PF if government of national unity talks
failed.
Kondlo said the results of the one-man elections showed that
Zimbabwe was
"spread right in the middle".
"... there is no way out
other than sharing power."
Sapa
MDC denies military claims
IOL
July 10 2008 at
02:55PM
Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change on Thursday
denied
suggestions that some of its supporters were undergoing training to
engage
in retaliatory violence.
"This is a propaganda lie,"
said MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa in
response to a Human Sciences
Research Council (HSRC) report.
"We have always been insecure, but
we have never resorted to violence.
Anybody who decides that would not be a
member of the party."
Earlier, Kwandiwe Kondlo, executive director
of the HSRC's democracy
and governance research programme said at the
release of the report in
Johannesburg: "We do know almost certainly that
some of them (MDC
supporters) have begun training."
He
continued: "This is not an official policy from MDC, but it is
simply hell
going loose."
He said the "culture of violence that comes from
Zanu-PF is gradually
becoming part of the culture in the MDC".
Kondlo said research indicated the emergence of "democratic resistance
committees" who had acquired some form of training.
"I don't
want to be quoted as saying the MDC is preparing for war...
The MDC is
feeling very insecure."
The report, "Saving Zimbabwe - an agenda
for democratic peace", says
the MDC used the violence by Zanu-PF against MDC
supporters to "win the
hearts and minds of regional and international
players".
The claims of retaliatory violence, according to the
report, emanate
from Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and an article in
Zimbabwe's
Sunday Mail which reported a "new strategy of resistance" in the
MDC.
A security analyst is reported to have observed that if MDC
leaders
could not deliver a credible strategy for victory, younger party
members
would adopt a different approach.
"Then they may well
be overtaken by a younger generation of opposition
activists who are willing
to fight violence with violence, thus challenging
Tsvangirai's leadership,"
said Knox Chitiyo of the Royal United Services
Institute in
London.
Chamisa said that these claims came from a "poisoned
chalice" and were
meant to justify a crackdown on the MDC.
"The
commissioner is part of the Zanu-PF top echelon, the Sunday Mail
write for
Zanu-PF - it's a Zanu-PF mouthpiece," he said.
Of Chitiyo he said:
"I don't know him, but I can almost say he is part
of Zanu-PF.
The HSRC's Kondlo said Zimbabwe had never been so close to civil war
after
the "magic bullet" of the election failed to resolve the polarisation
between supporters of MDC and the Zanu-PF.
"This is a recipe
for civil war because there is no yielding ground."
The HSRC
recommended an African Electoral Commission which would
resolve
election-related crises which are becoming prevalent. It also
suggested
expanding African Union/Southern African Development Community-led
mediation
efforts, headed by President Thabo Mbeki, to achieve a power
sharing
arrangement with a definite timetable.
The mediation efforts should
retain their African character because of
the "nuances of suspicion" of
international powers, but should broaden its
broker base to include
international advisers.
At the heart of the economic recovery plan
was a land reform strategy
involving Britain which "has historical
obligations to Zimbabwe arising from
the Lancaster House
Agreement".
SADC finance ministers and regional finance
institutions should
spearhead the funding of the recovery plan.
The HSRC believed that sanctions applied to children of Zanu-PF
politicos
were a violation of human rights and didn't take into account
generational
political differences.
The study recommended that the international
community consider
multilateral sanctions targeting both Zanu-PF and the
MDC, commit itself to
calling for the end to violence and for peaceful
negotiations.
The HSRC is a statutory research agency. The full
report could be
viewed on http://www.hsrc.ac.za/Document-2823.phtml
- Sapa
Zimbabwe's ZANU-PF party plans new crackdown on
MDC
Los Angeles Times
Ruling party sources say violence is likely to intensify as the regime
steps
up pressure on the opposition to accept its terms for a unity
government led
by Robert Mugabe.
From a Times Staff Writer
July 10,
2008
HARARE, ZIMBABWE -- Zimbabwe's regime plans a renewed crackdown
on
opposition leaders, lawmakers and activists in coming days, according to
ruling party sources.
Despite increasing international pressure on
President Robert Mugabe, the
sources warned that political violence is
likely to intensify.
The crackdown would be aimed at pressuring
the opposition to accept a
government of national unity led by Mugabe,
senior ruling party sources
said. The sources asked to remain anonymous
because of possible political or
security repercussions.
The ruling
ZANU-PF party wants to take the dominant role in a unity
government with the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Mugabe, clinging to power
after 28 years in office and a presidential
election rejected as
undemocratic by African observers, has demanded that
the opposition
recognize him as the country's legitimate leader as a
condition to
talks.
But the MDC refuses to accept Mugabe as head of any unity
government or
transitional arrangement, and demands that an additional
mediator join
negotiations now led by South African President Thabo
Mbeki.
In the weeks before the June 27 presidential runoff, ZANU-PF set
up 900
youth militia command bases, where MDC supporters were taken and
intimidated
into voting for the ruling party.
According to one base
commander, the new crackdown will be launched from
these bases, targeting
key opposition members and their assistants.
Morgan Tsvangirai,
Zimbabwe's opposition leader, withdrew from the
presidential runoff because
of the intensifying political violence.
He refused last week to meet
Mugabe at his residence for fear of appearing
to defer to Mugabe and offer
him legitimacy.
Mbeki, appointed by the Southern African Development
Community as a mediator
between the ruling party and the MDC, lost the
confidence of the opposition
after he said there was no crisis in
Zimbabwe.
A senior ruling party source said ZANU-PF youth militias had
been primed to
attack opposition figures because of the opposition's refusal
to accept
Mugabe's terms for a unity government.
Ruling party
operatives "will spontaneously respond to force the MDC to
withdraw some of
their conditions for the talks" on a unity government, the
source
said.
"It will happen as if the top office doesn't know, but the word has
been
sent out that this is how they're expected to respond."
The MDC
says 100 activists have been killed since the first round of
presidential
voting March 29. Hundreds are missing, presumed dead or in
jail.
ZANU-PF officials believe that a unity arrangement would
restore legitimacy
to the government and win back the confidence of
investors.
The MDC, which won the most parliamentary seats and says that
it won the
presidential vote, is calling for a transitional arrangement
leading to
democratic elections.
South Africa ruling party backs Zimbabwe talks
Reuters
Thu Jul 10,
2008 10:41am BST
By Nelson Banya
HARARE (Reuters) - African
National Congress leaders have urged President
Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party
to negotiate with the opposition, a sign South
Africa's ruling party may
play a bigger role in Zimbabwe's political crisis.
Kgalema Motlanthe, the
ANC's deputy president, called for talks after he and
ANC Secretary-General
Gwede Mantashe met with Mugabe in Harare on Wednesday,
Zimbabwe's
state-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Thursday.
"He said ANC also
supported the SADC (Southern African Development
Community) and AU (African
Union) positions that dialogue between ZANU-PF
and the opposition parties
was the only way to address the challenges facing
Zimbabwe," the paper
said.
"Unity of our people is paramount. It is a precondition for
development,"
Motlanthe is quoted as saying when asked whether talks were
key to solving
the crisis over Mugabe's June 27 run-off election victory,
which Western
nations branded a sham.
Zimbabwean opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a March 29
poll but fell short of the
absolute majority required to avoid a run-off.
Tsvangirai withdrew from
the second ballot, citing violent attacks by
pro-Mugabe militia. The MDC
said 103 of its supporters have been killed in
the violence. Mugabe blames
the opposition for the bloodshed.
The MDC leader also has refused to
recognise Mugabe's landslide victory in
the run-off or hold talks with the
government as long as the June election
is allowed to stand.
South
African President Thabo Mbeki has been mediating the Zimbabwean crisis
for
more than a year but has failed to make a breakthrough. His involvement
has
come under growing scrutiny, with the MDC arguing that he is biased in
favour of Mugabe.
Tsvangirai has frosty relations with Mbeki and has
demanded that the AU
appoint an envoy to help with any future mediation, a
move that is seen as
an attempt to dilute the South African leader's
influence or freeze him out.
ANC leader Jacob Zuma, who defeated Mbeki
for the leadership of the party in
December, has been a vocal critic of
Mugabe's government. ANC involvement in
the mediation process could spur
Tsvangirai's MDC to return to the
bargaining table.
But there remains
sharp disagreement as to the framework of any talks, with
Tsvangirai
demanding the March elections be used as the basis for
negotiations and
Mugabe saying the opposition must accept his re-election.
The United
States and Britain want international sanctions imposed on Mugabe
and his
top officials and an arms embargo on Zimbabwe. They are expected to
offer a
draft resolution calling for the restrictions in the U.N. Security
Council
this week.
Russia, which has a veto in the Council, has expressed
misgivings about the
resolution, while African nations firmly oppose it,
saying it could derail a
negotiated settlement in Zimbabwe.
(Writing
by Paul Simao; Editing by Mary Gabriel)
Liberian president criticizes Zimbabwean
elections, calls for "high-profile" negotiator
International Herald Tribune
The Associated
PressPublished: July 10, 2008
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa:
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
questioned the legitimacy of the
Zimbabwean government Thursday and said a
high profile negotiator should
help resolve the country's political crisis.
Sirleaf was speaking in
South Africa the same day officials reported that
negotiators on both sides
of Zimbabwe's divide resumed talks in South
Africa.
The talks have
been mediated off and on by South African President Thabo
Mbeki for more
than a year. But the Zimbabwean opposition has called for
another
mediator.
Sirleaf said Mbeki's efforts on behalf of the Southern African
Development
Community should continue. But, she added, "we hope they will
welcome
another outside mediator to work with them."
She said the
June 27 presidential run-off election in which President Robert
Mugabe was
the only candidate - a vote that followed a campaign of violence
against the
opposition - was not free and fair.
Other African leaders, Mbeki
included, have not been so blunt.
Sirleaf, a former World Bank official who
is the first woman in Africa to be
elected head of state, said she was
"pleased with the generation of new
African leaders," many of whom she said
were technocrats who focus on
economic and development issues.
She
predicted a future in which the continent's tyrants would be held
responsible for their actions.
"Africa is changing," she said. "Those
who violate the law ... stand to be
made accountable."
Zimbabwe rebukes
Botswana's stand on elections
Mmegi, Botswana
Thursday, 10 July 2008
FRASER MPOFU
Correspondent
HARARE:
Zimbabwe's Minister of Information and Publicity, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu,
says
his country will not be moved by criticism from Botswana, saying
President
Robert Mugabe's government will only listen to the collective
voice of the
Southern African Development Community (SADC).
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Briefing journalists, he said
Zimbabwe appreciates constructive criticism
from any quarter, but insisted
that because Botswana did not fight a
liberation struggle, the country's
leadership may not properly appreciate
British and the West's machinations
against Zimbabwe.
"We appreciate positive criticism from anyone,
including our neighbours such
as Botswana," said Ndlovu.
"But
Botswana did not fight a war to liberate themselves from colonialism
and so
we feel that we as Zimbabweans experience Western machinations more
than
they," the Minister said.
Botswana, together with Zambia, has in recent
weeks criticised the Zimbabwe
government over the way it conducted its 27
June presidential election
run-off.
Mugabe won 85 percent of the vote
in that election after Morgan Tsvangirai,
leader of the mainstream formation
of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) party withdrew from the race,
citing violence and intimidation of his
supporters.
Botswana has
declared that it does not recognise President Mugabe's
election. But Ndlovu
claimed that SADC supports President Mugabe's
government and would only heed
the regional bloc's collective advice.
"Botswana is not SADC," Ndlovu
said. "We listen to the collective voice from
SADC. SADC has not voiced
Botswana's claims. We know that in SADC we are not
the same, because Britain
and America are trying to influence some of our
neighbours against us," said
the minister.
But on the eve of the run-off election the SADC Organ on
Politics, Defence
and Security met in Swaziland and raised concerns over the
pre-election
conditions and called on the postponement of the
poll.
On talks between President Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and both factions
of MDC,
Ndlovu said his party is committed to dialogue.
The MDC and
ZANU-PF have since last year, been holding SADC-initiated
dialogue to break
the political impasse. South Africa's President, Thabo
Mbeki, is mediating
in the dialogue.
Over the past weekend, Mbeki was in Harare for what was
supposed to be the
first face-to-face meeting between President Mugabe,
Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara, who is the leader of the other MDC
faction.
Mutambara, attended but Tsvangirai boycotted the meeting after
raising
objections over its venue at President Mugabe's offices at Zimbabwe
House.
The opposition leader also said talks would only resume after the
cessation
of politically motivated violence targeting his supporters.
Harare says it is not at war with UN, warns against
sanctions
Monsters and Critics
Jul 10, 2008, 15:14 GMT
New York - Under threats of
UN Security Council sanctions demanded by the
United States and Britain,
Zimbabwe said Thursday while it's not war with
the United Nations such
punitive measures would escalate tensions.
The government of President
Robert Mugabe told the 15-nation council, which
was considering an arms
embargo and other sanctions, that the measures would
be 'especially
escalatory and tragic, and would seriously dent the
credibility of the
esteemed UN Security Council by lining up against the
august institution as
a force multiplier in support of Britain's colonial
crusade against
Zimbabwe.'
'Zimbabwe's quarrel with Britain is purely bilateral and has
no place on the
UN Security Council agenda,' a letter from Harare said.
'Zimbabwe is not war
and posses no threat to international peace.'
A
draft resolution under consideration met resistance from council members
South Africa, Vietnam, China and Russia. It is supported by the United
States, Britain, Belgium and France, which claimed that the post-electoral
crisis in Zimbabwe was a threat to international peace and security, a
reason for the council to intervene.
British Prime Minister Gordon
Brown, as well as Washington, were pushing for
a vote on the draft this
week, but opposition from other council members had
so far delayed
it.
In addition to the arms embargo on Zimbabwe, Mugabe and 13 high
ranking
Harare officials and the Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono would be
banned
from travelling abroad and their personal assets would be
frozen.
The Harare letter to the council accused the US and Britain of
orchestrating
a well sustained campaign against Zimbabwe. It said if the
sanctions were
imposed, it would worsen economic and social hardships in
Zimbabwe, which it
said was suffering from sanctions from the US, the
European Union and the
'white commonwealth' countries like Australia, Canada
and New Zealand.
The letter admitted there had been violence in the
country, but those were
isolated cases that were blown up in proportions by
opposition parties.
Mugabe won the runoff elections on June 27 after his
opponent, Morgan
Tsvangirai, withdrew from the race, fearing for his
life.
Amnesty
International - 11 youths abducted from displaced persons camp
http://www.amnesty.org.uk
Posted:
10 July 2008
At least a dozen armed men who are believed to be
linked to the ruling
ZANU-PF party in Zimbabwe have attacked an internally
displaced persons
(IDP) camp and abducted 11 young people who were keeping
watch, said Amnesty
International.
The attack happened in the
early hours of 7 July at Ruwa Training
Centre, approximately 25 km east of
the capital, Harare.
The men - who were masked and in military
fatigues - stormed into the
camp and attacked the men who were sleeping in
one room and the women who
were sleeping in another room. At least five
women and three men were
treated in the clinic for serious
injuries.
A spokesperson for Amnesty International
said:
'Insecurity and turbulence is still extremely high across
Zimbabwe.
'Hundreds of people forced to flee their homes in fear of
violence,
and even if they reach the camps that are supposed to be a safe
haven, they
are still at risk of being abducted, tortured or
killed.'
Around 400 people are currently sheltered in the Ruwa camp
after most
had their homes burnt down during the political violence that
followed the
29 March general elections.
Sources in the camp
have told Amnesty International that the 11 youths
have not been seen since
the attack. MDC supporters abducted by similar
gangs have been tortured or
killed.
Amnesty International's spokesperson
continued:
'We are particularly concerned for the safety of these
11 young people
and we would urge the police to thoroughly investigate their
suspected
abduction.'
Two and a half hours after the attack, a
senior police officer
identified only as the "DISPOL" (District Police
Commanding Officer) for
Harare district went to investigate. According to an
eyewitness, he spoke
only to the injured people at the clinic, not the
eyewitnesses.
The government promised to provide adequate security
through the
Department of Social Services. But in the past residents of the
IDP camp had
complained about the inadequate security at the
camp.
Outsiders are able to easily get into the camp without proper
security
checks, including suspected "war veterans" from surrounding areas
known to
have attacked real or perceived supporters of the MDC. On the day
of the
attack there was only one police officer on duty providing security
for the
camp.
On 29 June men believed to be members of
Zimbabwe's secret service,
the Central Intelligence Organisation, came to
the area and demanded to
speak to leaders of the camp. About three days
later other people believed
to be from the police Criminal Investigations
Department (CID) came and made
a video recording of the camp's
inhabitants.
Riot police have now surrounded the IDP camp, after
people in the camp
disarmed a CID officer when he entered and started
searching in one of the
rooms on 8 July. An eyewitness told Amnesty
International that the officer
had tried to fire a gun when he was
confronted.
Cops discover two bodies on SA's border post
IOL
July 10 2008 at 10:25AM
Limpopo police have found the bodies of two
men believed to be
Zimbabweans on a farm near the Beit Bridge border post, a
spokesperson said
on Thursday.
Inspector Francois Celliers said
the decomposed bodies were found in a
field at Eberstein Farm near Musina at
the weekend, about 30 kilometres from
the border.
Celliers said
police still needed to confirm that the men were
Zimbabweans.
"But that is what we suspect," he said. "We get many such cases near
the
border," he added.
A post mortem would be conducted to determine
the cause of death.
Celliers said many Zimbabweans crossed the
border but died of Aids
soon after entering South Africa. Others got
attacked by wild animals.
"There are leopards here, but Aids also
plays a huge role," said
Celliers.
On Wednesday, a man who had
been hospitalised in Durban and then
discharged, died on his way back to
Zimbabwe.
"He died on the bridge of natural causes," said
Celliers.
The Herald newspaper in Zimbabwe reported that a
19-year-old man from
Bulawayo was stabbed to death on the South African side
of the border last
week by a smuggler who had helped him cross the
border.
Earlier this year, a Zimbabwean woman was raped and stabbed
to death
after entering South Africa.
Many Zimbabweans fled to
South Africa to escape poverty, record-high
inflation and political unrest.
There were no official figures on how many
Zimbabweans were living in South
Africa illegally, but estimates were as
high as two million. - Sapa
More threats and abudctions of MDC MPs
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Thursday, 10 July 2008
07:18
By Chief Reporter
HARARE - Zimbabwe's military junta
is frantically trying to force down
the MDC's parliamentary majority through
arrests, abductions and threats.
At least one MDC MP is battling
for life in hospital, two are in jail,
one has been abducted and still at
large, at least seven have fled to
neighbouring countries and many others
are in hiding inside Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwean understands MDC MP
for Mutambara/Zvishavane, Pearson
Mbalekwa is in jail in Hwange facing
trumped up charges of inciting
violence. Information filtering through from
intelligence sources suggests
there are strict instructions that he must be
abducted soon after he is
granted bail and "dealt with."
He is
a former Zanu (PF) MP and Central Intelligence Organisation
operative who
defected to the MDC, much to the chagrin of the
authorities.Mbalekwa,
together with 16 other MDC activists were due in court
Thursday following a
High Court application lodged by the MDC for their
release.
At
least four MDC vehicles have also been impounded and the party has
also
applied to the High Court for the immediate return of the vehicles.MDC
MP
for Buhera West, Advocate Eric Matinenga, remains in custody on flimsy
charges of bankrolling political violence in his constituency. The High
Court has ordered that he be immediately released, but the order has been
contemptuously ignored.
Shuwa Mudiwa, MP for Mutare West, is
detained on trumped up charges of
kidnapping a 13-year-old
girl.
Naison Nemadziwa, MP for Buhera South in Manicaland, has gone
into
hiding following his abduction outside the Mutare High Court by a goon
squad
led by army colonel Morgan Mzilikazi.
He was abducted
after attending a court case where Joseph Chinotimba,
the defeated Zanu PF
parliamentary candidate, was challenging his
loss.Another Manicaland MDC MP,
Mathias Mlambo, has gone into hiding
following threats to his life.The
family of newly-elected Zaka West MP,
Festus Dumbu is still at large
following their abduction by Zanu (PF)
militants at their
homestead.
Eliah Jembere, MP for Epworth township near Harare, had
a fake charge
of rape thrown out by a Harare court. The authorities are
appealing against
that decision.The police have placed on its 'Wanted List'
seven MDC MPs on
charges of political violence. The list includes veteran
MDC officials such
as Elton Mangoma, MP-elect for Makoni North, Edmore
Marima and many others.
Several MDC MPs have gone into hiding,
including key strategists such
as MDC chief elections secretary, Ian
Makone.MDC secretary general Tendai
Biti is facing four counts of treason, a
charge which carries a death
penalty.
Fearing arrest, most of
the MPs have either fled to Botswana or South
Africa, and are unlikely to
come back in time for the
swearing-in-ceremony.According to Zimbabwean law,
absentee MPs can be
stripped of their seats if they are continuously absent
for 21 consecutive
sittings.
The MDC parliamentary caucus holds
110 seats in the Lower House while
Zanu (PF) has 99 seats, with another one
of the 210 seat-Lower Chamber held
by independent MP Prof Jonathan
Moyo.
The MDC shares 30 seats apiece with Zanu (PF) in the 60
electable-seat
Senate.MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the behaviour of
Zanu (PF) was
clear manifestation of a catalogue of acts of bad faith."They
have been in a
warrior mode against the whole nation," Chamisa told The
Zimbabwean. "In
short Zanu (PF) has declared war on the people and their
representatives.
What is now under threat is the will of the
people."
Chamisa said Zanu (PF) cannot demand dialogue with the MDC
when it is
hounding MDC MPs like common criminals.
"You can't
cut the tongue of the person you want to dialogue with," he
said.
Gordon
Brown statement on Zimbabwe in the house of lords
http://www.hararetribune.com
By Staff | Harare
Tribune News
Updated: July 10, 2008 10:59
news@hararetribune.com
Brown: "With your permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to make a
statement
on the G8 Summit, which took place under the chairmanship of Prime
Minister
Fukuda, between 7 and 9 July in Toyako, Japan ---- a summit that
was unique
not just for the range of issues discussed in three interlocking
summits -
the African outreach, the G8 plus five and the Major Economies
summits - but
also for the large number of countries, 14, whose Presidents
or Prime
Ministers took part.
Let me first draw the House's attention to the
unprecedented G8
statement on Zimbabwe.
Mr Speaker, in the face
of the deepening tragedy in Zimbabwe - the
intimidation, the violation of
human rights and the detention of political
prisoners - the G8 made clear
that we do not accept the legitimacy of the
Mugabe government and that the
UN Secretary General should now appoint a
special envoy both to report on
human rights and to support regional
mediation efforts to bring about
change.
The G8 also called for the immediate resumption of
humanitarian
operations - essential to preventing further suffering and loss
of life. And
we resolved that we would take further steps to take financial
and other
measures against those individuals responsible for the
violence.
As the House will know we have followed this up with a UN
Security
Council Resolution now being discussed in New York We propose an
international arms embargo on Zimbabwe including a ban on all supplies of
any arms, weapons, ammunition and military equipment; and we list 14 named
members of the Mugabe inner cabal against whom travel and financial
sanctions should be imposed by the whole international
community.
We have now set in train work to identify in Africa,
Asia, America and
Europe - through a forensic assessment - both physical
assets and bank
accounts of these 14 people. The UN resolution also
establishes a committee
to monitor these sanctions.
With
worldwide sanctions and a worldwide arms embargo, our aim is that
there be
no hiding place and no safe haven for the criminal cabal that
surrounds
Mugabe. And now that the G8 has taken its decision, we propose
that the
United Nations puts the full weight of the international community
against
the actions of an illegitimate government.
At the heart of the
Summit's other considerations and conclusions were
the triple shocks hurting
the world economy: the doubling of oil prices,
rising food prices and -
because of the credit crunch - the rising cost of
money: three shocks that,
it is now agreed, cannot be solved by traditional
monetary means alone but
require direct action that will tackle the sources
of oil and food inflation
and make for more stable commodity, agricultural
and financial
markets.
And the summit also reflected a world that is changing
fast, with a
consensus:
. about the new economic power of
Asia;
. that oil, commodity and food price rises represent global
problems
that require global solutions;
. that there is an economic
as well as an environmental imperative to
break our dependence upon
oil;
. and that we should act in Africa and on international
development
for moral reasons but also because developing countries hold the
key to
addressing our food shortages and will be the ones most affected by
climate
change.
First, while as the Summit noted, there are
many explanations for the
doubling of oil prices - the scale of change now
greater than the oil shock
of the 1970s - the basic challenge, which cannot
be resolved by one country
or group of countries alone, is that now and in
the future oil demand
exceeds oil supply.
So while Governments
are taking action domestically - Britain with
special winter payments for
old people, new help for low income families and
the current freeze in fuel
duty - the G8 agreed that the global conditions
for ensuring a more stable
international energy market are:
. First, expanding nuclear power -
with the International Energy
Agency suggesting that we will need a thousand
new nuclear power stations
over the next four decades;
. Second,
accelerating the expansion of renewables;
. Third, radical measures to
improve energy efficiency;
. and fourth, cooperation between oil
producers and oil consumers to
ensure greater understanding of the balance
between supply and demand and
then new investment in all sources of
energy.
Britain reported that, for our part, we are following up
changes to
the North Sea licensing structure with a review of the current
fiscal regime
with the aim of increasing recovery from new and existing oil
fields. In
addition we will be discussing with the President of Nigeria next
week how
the UK can work with the Nigerian authorities to address security
problems
in the Nigerian Delta which are costing 1 million barrels of oil a
day. And
we are working with the Iraqi Government to build capacity in the
Iraqi oil
sector. We are also discussing with Gulf states and others how
sovereign
wealth funds and oil revenues can be recycled into wider energy
investments.
Mr Speaker, global action to improve energy efficiency
and reduce our
dependence on oil will not only help reduce energy and fuel
bills for
households and industry but will also help us fight the battle
against
climate change - essential to the future prosperity and security of
the
whole world.
For the first time the G8 agreed not just to
consider but to adopt -
as part of an international agreement - a long term
goal of a cut of at
least 50 per cent in greenhouse gas emissions by
2050.
For the first time also we all agreed on the need to have
interim
goals and national plans to achieve them.
So I welcome
the fact that the Major Economies group - which includes
China, India,
Mexico, South Africa, Brazil, Australia, Indonesia and South
Korea as well
as the G8 - agreed to continue to work together in the UN to
achieve an
international agreement on climate change next year; and that the
major
emerging economies have agreed to adopt appropriate mitigation actions
with
a view to reducing their emissions below business as usual.
As a
measure of our shared commitment to meet these challenging goals,
the G8
also agreed to 25 energy efficiency recommendations from the
International
Energy Agency, including an agreement that each country will
put in place
car and consumer goods standards ---- standards that if
implemented globally
could cut global oil consumption by 15 per cent and
energy-related carbon
emissions by 20 per cent - equivalent to all the
emissions of the USA and
Japan combined.
As I told the Summit these standards include
Britain pressing in the
EU for an average fuel efficiency target of 100
grams of CO2 per kilometre
by 2020 ----- and my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary
of State for Transport is
today publishing a consultation paper in support
of this target. Britain
will also work with countries in the EU and beyond
on the scope for
commercialising the production of electric, plug-in and
hybrid vehicles.
To make a reality of - and to monitor - higher
energy efficiency
standards, we will also set up a new G8 Energy Forum which
will meet in the
autumn and examine how we can globally adopt new standards
and new
technologies. This will feed into the next meeting of the
consumer-producers
dialogue that, following its first meeting in Jeddah, we
will convene in
London before the end of the year.
And we will
seek to make permanent these initiatives by setting up an
International
Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation as a high level
forum to
accelerate the adoption of new technologies and greater energy
efficiency.
We also know that to adopt alternative energy
sources Africa and
developing countries must have greater access to funds.
So it has been a
British initiative to create what are called the Climate
Investment Funds at
the World Bank. We agreed measures at the G8 which will
now provide over 0
billion in public and private finance for alternative
energy and other
environmental investments: 7 billion through the existing
Clean Energy
Investment Framework and billion of new funding through the new
Climate
Investment Funds ---- a huge new global investment in tackling
climate
change and in alternatives to fossil fuels.
Mr Speaker,
with rising food prices having an impact at home and
abroad - particularly
for the poorest - the need for coordinated global
action is clear. So the G8
agreed to invest over billion to meet not just
short-term humanitarian needs
- including increases in food aid - but to
improve food security and
agricultural productivity over the longer term.
One major element
in reducing food prices - as well as generating
wider benefits to the global
economy - will be a successful outcome to the
Doha trade round where
lowering trade-distorting subsidies and import
restrictions could increase
global GDP by as much as 120 billion euros a
year by 2015. The Doha trade
round is primarily a development round which
will benefit the poorest
countries most. But if we are to break the
year-long deadlock in
negotiations, the upcoming WTO Ministerial on July 21
will be critical: a
make or break meeting for a trade deal. And I discussed
the importance of
this with all participants at the Summit including
President Bush and the
Presidents of Brazil and South Africa and the Prime
Minister of
India.
We agreed that the biggest signal we could send that the
present
challenges must not be an excuse for a renewed bout of protectionism
was
signing a world trade deal. I hope all sections of this House will agree
that all countries should show the resolution to achieve the breakthrough we
want and need. To support the WTO deal, the G8 also reiterated our
commitment to investing billion in 'Aid for Trade' to help poor countries
take advantage of the new trading opportunities.
Mr Speaker, as
part of this year of action on the Millennium
Development Goals, the G8
signed up to new action to meet the goals on
health - and also reaffirmed
commitments made at Gleneagles to provide
billion in aid to Africa and
billion globally, and to establish universal
access to AIDS treatments by
2010. How the world achieves further major
advances in alleviation of
poverty, disease and illiteracy is the subject of
the UN Millennium Summit
convened by the UN Secretary General for September
25th. And I call on all
countries to do what is necessary to meet the
Millennium Development
Goals.
My aim was to turn generalized commitments that were not
time-specific
into concrete action and delivery to address poverty, disease
and
illiteracy. We agreed that over the next five years we would deliver the
commitment made at Heiligendamm of billion to tackle infectious diseases and
to strengthen health in Africa. And some other countries will provide
additional resources for health systems.
We also agreed to help
fund, in 36 African countries, the WHO target
of 2.3 health workers per one
thousand people - in total, an additional 1.5
million new doctors, nurses
and health workers, including a substantial
increase in the number of
skilled midwives so that women no longer have to
die unaided in child
birth.
The G8 also committed to finance, by 2010, 100 million
bednets for the
prevention of malaria which could save 600,000
lives.
And billion of new funding for the education Fast Track
Initiative
will immediately help a further 10 million children go to
school.
During the Summit, I had a number of key bilateral meetings
with other
leaders, including the new President of Russia where we agreed on
coordinated international action on Iran, and the Middle East Peace Process.
I raised all the major issues between our two countries - our position on
the Litvinenko case, the treatment of the British Council and the withdrawal
of visas for BP employees.
Mr Speaker, the G8 agreed that in a
world of global financial flows it
is essential that immediate action to
tackle the impact of financial
instability at home is accompanied by clearer
standards for valuation,
changes in the role and use of credit ratings,
better management of
liquidity, and - more generally - concerted global
action to reform the IMF.
There was agreement that the IMF should become a
better early warning system
for the world economy and that the international
institutions set up in the
1940s were in need of fundamental reform to
ensure they are fit to meet the
challenges of the 21st century. Further work
will be done over the coming
year to produce proposals for their reform and
renewal.
Mr Speaker, just as on Zimbabwe where we have seen the
growth of an
international coalition for change, there is a growing
agreement on the need
for detailed collaborative actions on energy, climate
change, trade and
international development. And I commend this statement to
the House.
Gordon
Brown: We have halted deportations of Zimbabweans
http://www.hararetribune.com
By Staff | Harare
Tribune News
Updated: July 10, 2008 10:59
news@hararetribune.com
UK, London--The deportation of failed asylum seekers to Zimbabwe has
now
been halted, Gordon Brown said.
The Prime Minister told MPs that
while officials continued to deal
with the issue on a case-by-case basis, no
returns were currently taking
place.
"No-one is being forced to
return to Zimbabwe from the United Kingdom
at this time," he
said.
Mr Brown, who has been under pressure to stop the
deportations in the
wake of the violence surrounding the disputed
presidential election, said
that ministers were also looking to help failed
Zimbabwean asylum seekers
who were unable to work.
"They are
prevented from leaving the UK through no fault of their
own," he said. "They
are provided with accommodation and vouchers to ensure
that they are not
destitute but we are looking to see what we can do to
support Zimbabweans in
this situation."
Mr Brown, who was making a Commons statement on
this week's G8 summit
in Japan, appealed to the entire international
community to back the
imposition of United Nations' sanctions on Robert
Mugabe's regime.
British officials had thought they had the support
of the entire G8
for a resolution in the UN Security Council after the
leaders signed up to a
statement calling for measures against regime figures
responsible for the
violence.
However, on the final day of the
summit, Russia - one of the five
permanent Security Council members with the
power of veto - denounced the
draft resolution drawn up by Britain and the
US as "excessive". With the
position of China - another permanent member -
also unclear, Mr Brown said
detailed negotiations were now taking place at
the UN headquarters in New
York.
He acknowledged that the draft
resolution - which also calls for an
arms embargo on Zimbabwe - went further
than the G8 statement, but urged
members to support it.
"It is
very important that the whole weight of the international
community is
behind the efforts to secure a transition in Zimbabwe," he
said. "I believe
that time is short for doing that and it is very important
that the UN pass
its resolution as soon as possible. I hope that all
countries and all
continents will come behind it." --Harare Tribune News
UK
talks tough on Mugabe but treats Zimbabweans stranded in UK inhumanely
http://www.amnesty.org.uk
Posted: 10 July 2008
While Prime Minister Gordon Brown talks tough
on Mugabe at the G8
summit, Zimbabweans who have sought safety in Britain
are being treated
inhumanely, said Amnesty International today.
The call comes ahead of a rally outside Parliament tomorrow (11 July)
where
Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu, MPs from all parties and refugee
organisations will call on the government to give Zimbabwean asylum seekers
leave to remain in the UK and permission to work.
Amnesty
recognises the need for a robust international reaction to the
serious human
rights abuses that continue in Zimbabwe. But it implores the
UK to consider
the plight of Zimbabweans who have been refused asylum in
Britain but cannot
return home. They are left destitute and in limbo, denied
the right to work
to support themselves and denied financial support from
the
government.
Amnesty International UK Campaigns Director Tim Hancock
said:
'Gordon Brown himself has said 'Britain will not shirk our
responsibilities to the people of Zimbabwe' but that includes those who have
come here seeking our protection.
'Zimbabweans and others who
have been refused asylum are being treated
inhumanely. Many are reduced to
poverty - forced to scavenge for food, to
sleep in parks and public toilets,
to go without vital medicines even after
suffering torture. Others rely on
the charity of friends, churches or
drop-in shelters to
survive.
'The government must stop using destitution as a policy
against
refused asylum seekers. If people can't return home, they should be
allowed
to work or get enough financial support to live on, until they can
return
home or are granted leave to remain here.'
Yesterday in
Parliament Harriet Harman ducked a question from Fiona
McTaggart on the
issue of destitution among Zimbabwean refused asylum
seekers. Asked whether
it would be possible to give them the right to work
in order to earn an
income, Harman merely alluded to 'meetings' that the
Home Secretary would be
having before moving onto the different issue of
forcible
removals.
The call comes as Amnesty reported the abduction of 11
young people
from an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp outside Harare
on 7 July,
following an attack by armed men believed to be linked to the
ruling ZANU-PF
party. Amnesty International is concerned that the abducted
youths are at
serious risk of being tortured or killed.
EU assembly urges tighter sanctions on
Zimbabwe
International Herald Tribune
The Associated Press, ReutersPublished: July 10,
2008
STRASBOURG: The European Parliament called Thursday for
tighter economic
sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's government in
Zimbabwe and urged
the international community, including African nations,
not to recognize his
re-election.
The EU assembly voted
overwhelmingly, 591 to 8, that EU nations draft and
implement new sanctions
against Mugabe's government and take other measures
to dissuade European
companies from doing business in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe won a presidential
election runoff last month in which he ran
unopposed after the opposition
leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, dropped out
because of attacks on his followers.
Mugabe's victory has been widely
scorned.
The Parliament said the
27-nation EU should also push for UN sanctions,
including an arms embargo.
The EU lawmakers' resolution called on EU
governments to "tighten and
extend" targeted sanctions against members of
Mugabe's government and
"others responsible for grave violations of human
rights."
They
stressed "the elections of 27 June cannot be regarded as legitimate,"
and as
such called on African countries to suspend Zimbabwe from their
regional
meetings to put pressure on Mugabe "until free and fair elections
are
held."
The Parliament said new measures should also "name and shame"
business
people that finance Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and expose banks that
provide
loans and investment to Mugabe.
Lawmakers said shareholders of
such banks must be made aware that some
financial companies were acting as
go-betweens for Mugabe and his
supporters. The resolution also called for
more United Nations involvement
to mediate with South Africa between Mugabe
and Tsvangirai.
Graham Watson, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the EU
assembly, called
for the African Union to do more to push for a democratic
solution to the
crisis. "No longer can this conspiracy of silence continue,"
he said. "One
wonders why the International Criminal Court has not yet
issued a warrant
for Mugabe's arrest."
The lawmakers said the EU
should also prepare an aid package for Zimbabwe,
if Tsvangirai is able to
take power there as part of a unity government.
Speaking in Brussels,
Henrietta Holsman Fore, administrator of the United
States Agency for
International Development, appealed to Mugabe to allow aid
groups the
freedom to operate freely amid shortages of food. "It is a time
in which we
are all deeply concerned about the people of Zimbabwe," Fore
said.
Addressing the assembly on Thursday, President Nicolas Sarkozy
of France,
which recently assumed the rotating presidency of the European
Union,
insisted that the EU would not be able to take in new members unless
its
institutions are changed in line with the treaty rejected last month by
Irish voters.
He has told the European Parliament that the EU must
change if it expands
beyond the current 27 members. Sarkozy said he would
travel to Ireland on
July 21 to seek a solution but warned there would be no
renegotiation of the
Lisbon Treaty, which was voted down by the Irish
referendum.
He also told the Parliament on Thursday that the priorities
of France's
six-month EU presidency included climate change, immigration and
defense.
He also said Thursday that he had the backing of all European
capitals for
his decision to attend the opening of the Beijing Olympics. The
Élysée
Palace announcement on Wednesday that Sarkozy would attend the
ceremony next
month on behalf of the union triggered accusations he was
undermining EU
efforts to pressure China on its human rights
record.
London Citizens
Zimbabwean action day
http://www.irr.org.uk
11 July 2008
An action day to call for the right to
work and training for Zimbabwean
exiles in the UK as part of the Strangers
into Citizens Campaign.
.. Friday 11 July 2008, 11.30am
.. St
Margaret's Church, Westminster Abbey , London
Timetable
.. 12pm -
Service
.. 1.30pm - Rally and walk to Home Office, Parliament Square and
the
South Bank.
For more information contact South London Citizens,
Joanna Purkis, 020 7043
9880 / 07815 779 378. Organised by London Citizens -
a community alliance
that includes churches, mosques, schools, trade unions
and charities.
Events listing is provided for information only. Inclusion in
this listing
should not be taken to imply that the Institute of Race
Relations supports
an event or is involved in organising it.
Human Rights Watch calls on UN to ensure Zim refugee safety
By Alex
Bell
10 July 2008
Human Rights Watch said on Thursday the United
Nations High Commission for
Refugees needs to step in to stop violent
attacks against displaced
Zimbabweans, sheltering at refugee camps across
the country.
Eight people are still missing after a camp in Ruwa was attacked
by up to 20
masked men on Sunday night. The attackers used shotguns and
other weapons to
beat up members of the 300 strong group of men, women and
children. Fourteen
people went missing, but six have since managed to return
to the camp.
Another eight people were hospitalised.
The group were
sent to Ruwa after seeking shelter at the South African
embassy in Harare,
following an upsurge of violence that forced them to flee
their Epworth
homes last month. Embassy officials had promised security for
the displaced
group, but this proved to be an empty promise with the
refugees forming
their own, unarmed security patrols. Sources have told
Newsreel that the
camp is being closely monitored by riot police and the
camp had been
"inspected" by armed, uniformed men, who threatened the
refugees on
Tuesday.
Meanwhile we have been unable to clarify Monday's initial
reports that a
refugee centre in Gokwe was also attacked over the weekend,
but information
received indicates that there has been widespread violence
in the area,
which continues. The area is now completely 'locked down' by
government
backed militia and it's impossible to get any confirmed
details.
Tiseke Kasambala from Human Rights Watch told Newsreel on
Thursday that the
responsibility of refugee safety lies squarely on the
shoulders of the
Zimbabwean government, but she said given the political
crisis there, "the
UN High Commission for Refugees needs to shoulder the
responsibility to
prevent violence against those Zimbabweans who are
internally displaced".
Kasambala said the UN "needs to urgently take up
the issue of refugee safety
with the government" and called the attacks on
refugees "very worrying". She
added that the attacks are "more evidence that
African and International
leaders need to step in immediately, and
peacekeeping forces need to be
deployed to stop the ongoing
brutality".
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Sanctions calls undermine
Zimbabwe mediation: study
africasia
JOHANNESBURG, July 10 (AFP)
South African President Thabo Mbeki's mediation
efforts offer the best hope
of an end to Zimbabwe's political crisis while
calls for sanctions are
counterproductive, a new report said
Thursday.
In a joint study released ahead of a vote at the UN Security
Council on
imposing targeted sanctions against Robert Mugabe's regime, the
Pretoria-based Human Sciences Research Council and Nairobi's Africa Policy
Institute said such a move would only harden attitudes in Harare.
It
also said a government of national unity was the only way out of the
country's impasse but Mbeki, a long-time mediator between Zimbabwe's
opposition and ruling ZANU-PF party, faced an uphill task to put such a deal
in place.
"The Mbeki-led mediation is the best placed instrument with
the requisite
continental mandate to spearhead dialogue leading to the
resolution of the
Zimbabwe crisis," said the report.
But "pressure by
Western powers... to adopt sanctions against Zimbabwe's
leadership threaten
to undermine (Mbeki's) mediation.
"A sanctions campaign is likely to
force the hardliners around Mugabe to dig
in, leading to the failure of the
talks," it added.
The report said there were growing signs of the
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) retaliating to attacks by
ZANU-PF supporters.
"But the chances of a full-scale civil war are slim
at the moment, given the
weakness of the MDC and the virtual monopoly over
coercive power by
ZANU-PF," it added.
ZANU-PF and the MDC held talks
on Thursday for the first time since Mugabe
was controversially re-elected
in a June 27 ballot, in which he was the only
candidate after a boycott by
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
The MDC leader, who pushed Mugabe
into second place in the first round of
voting in March but failed to pass
the 50 percent threshold, pulled out of
the run-off poll after a wave of
deadly attacks on his supporters.
"Power-sharing is critical because the
results of the March election
revealed a sharp divide between the opposition
and the government," said the
report but acknowledged that "the Mbeki-led
mediation has an uphill task to
create an arrangement that reflects
Zimbabwe's challenges and realities."
Tsvangirai last week rejected the
idea of a national unity government,
calling for a transitional authority
which would agree on a framework for
fresh elections.
Mugabe has in
turn said he will only hold talks with the MDC as long as it
recognises his
re-election.
Euro-MPs call for tougher Zimbabwe sanctions
EUbusiness
10 July 2008,
11:33 CET
(STRASBOURG) - European Union lawmakers called Thursday for tougher
EU
sanctions against Zimbabwe, including putting businessmen who finance
President Robert Mugabe's regime on a visa ban list.
In a resolution,
the deputies urged the EU "to tighten and extend targeted
sanctions against
members of the Mugabe regime and others responsible for
grave violations of
human rights, if mediation efforts are not accepted and
the state-sponsored
violence is not ended".
It came as diplomats said that the UN Security
Council would probably vote
later Thursday on targeted UN sanctions against
Mugabe and 13 of his
associates over a presidential election widely viewed
as illegitimate.
The deputies called on the EU "to press for sanctions to
be adopted at UN
level, including an arms embargo and a comprehensive freeze
of assets of the
entire government and ruling party leadership".
In
addition, the resolution urged the bloc to take "coercive measures" which
would "name and shame those business people responsible for financing the
repressive ZANU-PF regime".
The measures would include "rescinding
their rights of residence in Europe,
and denying their family members access
to employment and educational
institutions".
Shareholders in
"international banks which act as conduits for corrupt
earnings, or provide
loans and investment such as Barclays Bank, Standard
Chartered and others,"
should also be warned.
International pressure has mounted on Mugabe --
Zimbabwe's leader since
independence -- since opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai withdrew from last
month's presidential election amid spiralling
campaign violence.
The EU has previously slapped extensive sanctions on
Zimbabwe, including an
arms embargo and travel ban on Mugabe and other
senior officials. They were
imposed after he won elections in 2002 which the
opposition insists were
rigged.
In June last year, the bloc widened
the travel ban and imposed an assets
freeze on Zimbabweans deemed
responsible for the "rapidly deteriorating
human rights, political and
economic situation."
"The situation in Zimbabwe has really reached a
nadir. The people are being
held hostage by a regime determined to cling
onto power," German
conservative lawmaker Michael Gahler said during
debate.
Official:
Zim crisis a "threat" to Moza democracy
http://www.hararetribune.com
By Staff/Services | Harare
Tribune News
Updated: July 10, 2008 11:35
news@hararetribune.com
Mozambique, Maputo--- A key architect of the peace deal which ended
Mozambique's 16-year civil war said Thursday the country's fledgling
democracy could be endangered by the crisis across its western border in
Zimbabwe.
"We are concerned that the political crisis in
Zimbabwe could affect
democracy in Mozambique," Andrea Riccardi, the founder
of the Italian
organisation Sant Egidio, told reporters in the Mozambican
capital Maputo.
Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans have already
fled east to escape
an economic meltdown in their homeland and Riccardi
warned many more would
follow if post-election violence escalates further,
potentially
destabilising the delicate political balance in
Mozambique.
"Judging by the countries' geographical position,
Mozambique will be
obliged to provide solutions if a worse situation like a
war breaks out and
this could threaten its own democracy," Riccardi
said.
Riccardi, in Maputo to celebrate his organisation's 40th
anniversary,
said he was concerned by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's
intolerance of
critics.
The Italian said Mugabe played a
significant role in brokering peace
between Mozambique's warring Renamo and
Frelimo parties which halted their
conflict in 1992 with the signing of the
Rome Accord at the head office of
Sant Egidio.
"I knew Mugabe
through our negotiations between Renamo and Frelimo to
end 16 years of civil
war in Mozambique and his contribution was very good,
but now he seems to
have changed so much,' said Riccardi after holding talks
with Mozambican
President Armando Guebuza.
"We think the opposition politicians in
Zimbabwe have their rights and
they need to be respected," he
said.
Zimbabwe has been hit by growing political violence since a
disputed
first round of presidential elections in March.
Mugabe
was re-elected last month in a second round, boycotted by
opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai after a wave of deadly attacks on his
supporters--Harare
Tribune News
Worm's Eye - Mugabe Seeks Tips From Mwanawasa
The Weekly Observer
(Kampala)
COLUMN
9 July 2008
Posted to the web 10 July
2008
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has for once admitted that
he has
something to learn from another African country. The controversial
leader
has always insisted that there is nothing any person or country in
the world
could teach him or his country Zimbabwe.
When some African
leaders recently suggested at the African summit in Egypt
that Zimbabwe
forms a government of national unity along the lines of the
one in Kenya,
President Mugabe rejected the suggestion, saying that the
crisis in Zimbabwe
will be resolved "the Zimbabwean way" and not the Kenyan
way, despite the
similarities between the two countries' political
situations.
Both Zimbabwe and Kenya were thrown into a political
crisis following
disputed elections. But while Kenya resolved its political
troubles by
forming a unity government comprising ruling and opposition
party leaders,
President Robert Mugabe has rejected the idea of adopting the
same model in
Zimbabwe. He insists that Zimbabwe has all the answers to its
problems.
But in a rather surprising change of mind, President Mugabe now
says there
is one thing he can learn from another person or
country.
"I must confess that I am extremely impressed by how the
President of
Zambia, Mr. Levy Mwanawasa, has not died from a stroke. When
the chap
collapsed in Egypt, we were all sure he was gone. But many days
later, and
despite reports to the contrary, he is still alive and kicking. I
may not
like the man, but that is one thing I can learn from him: how not to
die,"
Mr. Mugabe told diplomats from China, Micronesia and Nauru in
Harare.
Among African leaders, Zambia's Levy Mwanawasa has been one of
the very few
critics of President Mugabe. It is therefore assumed that
Mugabe would have
wanted to see Mwanawasa dead.
"I obviously don't
like the guy, but I like his ability to defy death. At my
age, it is quite
likely that I could suffer a stroke too. It is therefore
important, much as
I dislike the fellow, to learn from him how not to die
when you are hit by a
stroke at such an advanced age," Mugabe said.
According to sources who
attended Mugabe's briefing of the remaining
diplomats in Harare, the aged
President of Zimbabwe said he would be the
first to call Mwanawasa, once he
recovered, for tips on how to survive a
stroke.
"Zambia may not be
such a bad country to learn something from after all," he
reportedly
said.
Comments from Correspondents
Brother you are mistaken.Do not even try to
align MDC to the Democrats and
all that.You can not hold elections in the
country when the people you
putport to represend were being killed and
displaced because of voting for
you.You are not even allowed airtime on
radio and TV and let alone you are
harassed all the way not even being able
to hold an elections.The withdrawal
method you will see soon is working as
the Zim economy is dead and will soon
need resurection and the MDC is the
only party that can guarantee FDI.To say
that it does not work I do not know
where you are coming from
brother.
WS
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Tsvangirai has done a lot for us
the people & has to play his cards
right...the playing field is not level
& you must not play fire with
fire otherwise you play to Mugabe's tune
& game in which you dont &
will never win...what you expected
Tsvangirai to do is what bob wants
him to do & fall into his
trap...already the election was rigged
before so why contest when its clear
enough that its not fair... Mbeki
is bob's right hand man and what mediation
do you expect
really...honestly you are not Zimbabwean and ask us zimbos the
real
truth..we are proud of Tsvangirai & all he has done despite
the
conditions he +us faces.... so a man comes into your home
butchers
your whole family leaving you only & then the matter is reported
but
wait suddenly the overseer of the case suggests you shake hands
and
hug & initiate
dialogue....HOGWASH..!!!...
-------------------
As a Zimbabwean living
in the diaspora, but gravely concerned and getting
increasingly alarmed with
the worsenning crisis in my beloved country, I
relish the continued dialogue
ordinary Zimbaweans like Mr Mubayiwa, myself,
and others are pursuing. It is
a healthy debate that should be entertained
and nurtured in a real
democracy. In this vein, I offer a differing view to
Mr Mubayiwa regarding
Tsvangirai's withdrawal from the runoff. It is correct
to say that
individuals are dispensible in a struggle and we need courageous
leaders
with a vision. Where there is no vision, people perish, hence the
calamity
in Zimbabwe. Our current leaders, in the form of ZANUPF and Mugabe
have lost
the main objective what it means to be a Zimbabwean. The struggle
was fought
for dignity, freedom of expresson and for self determination, not
just for a
country but for individual Zimbabweans. We notice the true
meaning of this
in a true democracy like in most western countries. It is
therefore natural
for us as Zimbabweans to strive for this hence the utter
disgust at what is
happening in Zim. The disdain that is expressed at the
leaders who are
imposing themselves on Zimbabweans is shared not just by
western powers but
by right thinking ordinary Zimbabweans and Africans. You
cannot have a
democracy where one of the competitors is the referee. ZANUPF
is mobilising
state resources against fellow Zimbaweans for exercising their
right to self
determination. Tsvangirai seems to have flipflopped over the
years. Yes he
might have in some instances, but I believe he has been a
courageous leader,
who has put ordinary Zimbabweans' interests before his as
an individual. You
cannot fight guns with the ballot. We all know that the
military junta was
very determined to retain power at all costs, including
loss of many
innocent Zimbabwean lives including, women, kids and the
elderly. I think
this is where true statesmanship is at stake. Tsvangirai
demonstrated just
that. He could have chosen to blindly go on with a sham
election, which he
could not dream to win, given the infrastructure put in
place by the junta.
Any ordinary Zimbabwean can tell you of the coercion
andreal threat to their
lives for having an alternate opinion. Tsvangirai
would have legitimised
this sham process by continuing in the election in
which he could not even
campaign and his foot soldiers were being
systematically eliminated. Mugabe
was obviuosly alarmed that Tsvangirai
pulled out. We all know that
Zimbabweans have rightfully rejected him for
his failure to put the
country's interests before his own. We do not need
Tsvangirai to demonstarte
this. Tsvangirai has his own flaws as a leader and
as an individual, but to
suggets that he is betraying the struggle is
illconceived. We all need to
rally behind him and give him the support he
needs. You cannot compare Obama
with Tsvangirai, I am sure Obama would be
very proud of Tsvangirai for
staying in the struggle. Withdrawing from a
sham election is not betraying
the struggle. Infact, he is demonstrating
what true leadership is, be smart,
have the people run with you, not for you
and know your enemy. Republicans
can have an onslaught on Obama come fall,
but that is on a level playing
field. There is no government sponsored
militia that is preventing him from
campaining freely and that is
systematically killing his campaign team and
supporters. To compare the two
situations is very misguided and shows narrow
understanding of what is
happening. Yes, the two's followers look up to the
leaders to deliver, but
the leaders should expect the same from their
followers. Only in a free
democracy can this happen, in America that is, so
Obama would not pull out
just because of malicious verbal attacks from any
machinary. He once said he
would respond aggressively to any such attacks.
For Tsvangirai, the
equivalent would be to take up arms, a route which most
Zimbabweans are
praying not to happen. So Mr Mubayiwa, I appreciate your
frustration at the
slow progress to a resolution, just like many of us. I
think the solution is
not in pointing fingers at Tsvangirai, a comrade in
the struggle, but rather
in telling the people responsible for the
brutalities we are witnessing in
Zimbabwe to desist from such actions and
allow Zimbabweans to choose leaders
of their liking no matter how naive they
may seem. They should be given a
chance to fail, at which time we can
replace them. However what we should
ask of our leaders is for them to be
willing to surrender power when the
people have lost faith in them. The
calls for a transitional government or
authority to oversee free and fair
elections and to have a people driven
constitution are the plausible option
we should all rally for. Let us
therefore work towards this as Zimbabweans
and guide our leadership through
this kind of dialogue to reach this
end!
By SR
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